Chapter-1 (Brooding Prince)
He was following her again. Radhika did not know why he did it. He was the rich and popular in college and she was new and nobody, he didn’t care to look at her while in the campus but when she crossed his street he followed her. He followed her all along to her house. He watched till her bedroom light lit, then he left. Radhika did not look back at him for fear that he would leave. She thought maybe, he was protective or sorts, the street after his house was dark and mostly all alone. Radhika was afraid of dark, like a lot but she has no choice but to walk all along that street.
Radhika saw through her bedroom window, he went away. He always wore a hoodie over his head. It was strange, he didn’t know her and she didn’t know him. He was the one guy she stared at most of the time college, but frankly she knew more about him by observation. He was interesting to watch. He wasn’t like the rest of the crowd. He wasn’t a bully. He wasn’t a show off. He wasn’t loud or bratty like his friends. The rich kids. He was silent. Brooding. It was not that he was rude or angry kind. He smiled, yeah, easily but rarely. He had a girlfriend. She was polished, well bred and beautiful. She wore dresses to college. Short, long and everything that is branded. Purses. Bags. Shoes. Head to toe she was covered in expensive.
Since the first day in college, her eyes strayed to his seat. He sat in a lazy posture. Looked bored as hell, but she knew he was very much attuned to the class. His grades were good, that means he paid attention. He wasn’t acting as if bored. He wasn’t a hypocrite. He was just silent like that. Radhika liked him more and more but sadly she could do nothing about it. Arjun Mehra was an unreachable territory. She could just admire him from distance.
He was tall, lean, too lean, dark brown eyes, smooth lines and angles of cheek bones with well defined hard jaw. But, the most spectacular were his eyes. If he was silent, then his eyes spoke, too many things. Filled with mystery. Otherwise than his eyes, his face was least expressive. Annoyingly passive.
Radhika had encountered thw full force of his eyes drilling into hers one day. That day was the most frightening and also the most sensational in her life. She had been working in the library one evening and Mrs. Webber asked her to bring the four Management books she had missed in the store room in the back wing of the college. Radhika did as she was told, if she missed working in the library and additional hours in the cafe, then her tuition fee was hard to be paid. She had no parents, she was a foster child. It was not like her foster parents were mean or bad. They were good to her and she was lucky to have them. The problem was with Misha and Viren. Misha despised Radhika, she didn’t like her at all, that pained Radhika to no end. Viren behaved as if she was invisible.
Her foster parents weren’t rich to afford her college fee, they could afford Misha’s and Viren’s but not Radhika’s, as she had scholarship and she also had to work part time for tuition fees.
So, that day she was working late, it was already 6:30 in the evening, she was afraid, she had to walk home all alone. Cursing heavily over her fate she walked downstairs, well past the corridors. The store room was dark, she gulped hard. God, help her, she prayed. The door closed behind with a click.
Radhika turned around with a gasp. The door locked itself. She shook the door knob again and again. God, she had locked herself in, how stupid was she.
“Somebody, help!” She yelled, and beat on the door.
There wasn’t anyone there. College hours were done and there wasn’t a soul around the campus. The darkness was getting to her, the feeling of oppression was too much, like something was there around her. It seem to envelope her.
Pure sheer terror struck her mind, it heightened her senses, making it worse to breath. Her breathing turned to short pants. No. She was not going to break down after all these years. Never. With renewed energy she beat more and morw.
Radhika took a deep breath in and let out a scream at the top of her lungs.
“Help!” She screamed, with everything she has got.
She screamed and screamed but the door didn’t budge nor it opened from outside. Her energy seem to dwindle, screams turnef soundless, but she continue beating at the door.
She slid down on the floor, counting minutes, hours. This was not going to happen. She was not going to be weak. Somebody had to find out. The librarian will come looking for her. The old woman will surely come, she was not going to leave her here and go now, will she?
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Next….Dark Savior…the Brooding Prince…
Credit to: kfar